by Michael Tod
THE GOLDEN FLIGHT
Book Three in The Dorset Squirrels Saga
by
Michael Tod
PUBLISHED BY:
Cadno Books
The Dorset Squirrels Saga
Copyright © 2010 Michael Tod
This book is available in print at michaeltod.co.uk
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
CHAPTER ONE
March 1964 roared in upon Dorset.
The great sweep of the Chesil Bank in Dorset was taking the full force of the south-westerly gale as a deep depression drove in from the Atlantic. For over twenty miles pebbles snarled and ground as the heavy seas rushed in, each wave tumbling over the previous one in its haste. The churning action rounded the stones and moved them ever eastwards, sorting the pebbles by size as they trundled along. To the west the shingle was pea-sized, whereas at the aptly named Deadman’s Bay at the Portland end of the beach, it ranged in size from that of a potato to that of a giant swede.
By nightfall the waves were breaking over the crest of the Bank and rushing down the far side, tearing out the mats of sea campion that grew on the landward slope above the more sheltered waters of the Fleet Lagoon.
The usually smooth surface of the Fleet was choppy and debris-laden as gusts of wind carried plastic bottles, fishing-net corks, small pieces of driftwood and dead seaweed from the Chesil Bank and tossed them all into the Lagoon behind.
Where Mute swans had nested on the mainland side of the Fleet for over six hundred years, a flock now huddled on their nest sites, heads tucked under their wings to keep dust and flying reeds from their eyes.
There was no rain, but even at that distance, the air was misted with a fine salt spray which formed little pools on the swans’ feathers and trickled in tiny rivulets to the ground.
The most seaward pair of the Dragon’s Teeth, a double line of concrete tank-stops that had straddled the beach since the fear of invasion in 1939, were undermined by the waves and drawn down into the depths by the suction of the undertow. The deep rolling action of the waves disturbed the wrecks that lay off that treacherous coast, and pieces of jagged iron from landing craft and tramp steamers, together with waterlogged timbers from emigrant ships and Armada galleons were thrown up the beach and dragged down again, artefacts and treasures spilling across the seabed.
Further along the coast, the massive bulk of Portland stood firm against this storm as it had for ten thousand years and a thousand similar storms, protecting the deep waters of Weymouth Bay to the east.
Even so, the cliffs from White Nothe to Saint Alban’s Head were being pounded and eroded by the giant waves gnawing at their feet, bringing down cascades of chalky rock. Only at Lulworth Cove, where the narrower entrance excluded all but an occasional wave, was there calmer water. Here a few waves rolled in and exhausted themselves in the enclosed bay; the swoosh as each ran gently up the beach being drowned by the howling of the gale overhead.
The wind tore at the cliffs surrounding the cove, probing into every nook and cranny as though seeking out seabirds to toss through the air, but these birds, sensing an impending storm, had already flown inland.
Frustrated, the wind raced over the land, shaking and felling great oak trees and working loose the tiles and thatch on the cottages of the humans.
At the Tanglewood Knoll on the Great Heath, the wind found no new trees to topple. Another such storm some fifteen years before had felled all those that were not well rooted or were past their prime. The tangled trunks and branches on the ground below the standing pines gave the wood its name and protected it from the forays of gun-bearing humans.
In one of these pines, three elderly grey squirrels huddled together in a drey, feeling the wind rock the tree and expecting any minute that the drey itself would be blown out of the fork, and the twigs and mossy lining scattered over the wood. They feared that they too might be flung to the ground but each tried to hide his fears from the others.
Further to the east near the Blue Pool, now a wind-whipped mass of foam and bubbles, seven red squirrels had just had their drey torn to pieces around them. Shaken and breathless they were hurrying along the ground to seek shelter in a hollow tree, known to them as the Warren Ash. The wind fluffed up their tails and fur, and the stronger gusts bowled them over on the shifting, rustling mass of pine needles forming the forest floor.
Even further to the east, the wind picked up speed as it crossed the frothing waters of Poole Harbour to throw itself at the screen of trees that encircled the island of Brownsea; trees that surrounded and protected the meadows and the woodlands at the island’s centre. One violent gust caught a giant pine growing just behind the southern shore and snapped its trunk some six feet above the ground, the top bounding and rolling across the trackway behind, to lodge in the mass of romping rhododendron bushes.
This final act of vandalism seemed to satisfy the wind. As darkness fell, the force slackened and the stars, pricking through the blackness above the island, looked down on a ravaged landscape.
A moon later, in the mild spring sunshine Marguerite, a mature red squirrel, sat on top of The Wall. Not a wall – The Wall.
This brick-built structure was in the centre of Ourland, a beautiful island of woodland, meadows and heath set in the now placid waters of Poole Harbour. The Wall had once formed the back of a range of glass-houses which had provided grapes, peaches and other exotic fruit to the inhabitants of the Castle at the island’s eastern end. After many years of neglect, all that remained of the hot houses and the vegetable garden was The Wall.
It was about twice the height of a man and ran parallel to a track which had recently been cleared of undergrowth.
Marguerite had climbed the weathered brickwork, her claws finding holds in the crumbling mortar between the bricks. In these crevices moss grew, and from the top of The Wall, gossamer spiders’ webs reached out to nearby bushes.
She sat listening to the young squirrels playing at the other end of The Wall. From where she was she could not count them, but by the sound of their playful chatter there were ‘lots’. In fact she realised there were lots of young squirrels all over the island.
Now that the Scourge of Ourland, the pine marten, was dead, there were no predators to fear, and the happy squirrels were following their Sun-inspired desires, mating and producing many healthy young dreylings. Something about all this had been making Marguerite feel slightly uneasy but she had not yet put a paw on the problem. She moved along the top of the wall to watch the game.
Having lived on the Mainland when she was a youngster, this island game was new to her. The rules seemed fairly simple. The young squirrels would scurry about on the ground while one climbed the wall and began a chant, at which all the others froze wherever they were. When the chant was complete, the squirrel on the wall selected a victim by calling their name and then tried to leap down on to him or her. No squirrel could move until a name had been called. If the l
eaping squirrel caught the named one, it would nip it with its teeth, but if it missed, the triumphant victim climbed the wall and took over as Leaper.
Marguerite watched for a while, listening to the chant with interest. It had the five, seven, five, sound pattern of a Kernel of Truth, yet the words did not make sense - perhaps she was mis-hearing them. Kernels should always make their meaning clear at once. There was even one which said:
A Kernel’s message
Should be wrapped in gossamer
Clever wraps obscure.
She moved closer, but her presence disturbed the youngsters, who held her in some awe. The game stopped, leaving the young squirrels sitting about uncomfortably. I’m sorry,’ Marguerite called down. ‘I didn’t want to spoil your fun. I was just trying to hear what you were saying. How does that chant go?’
The current ‘Leaper’ who she recognised as Dandelion’s youngest daughter, turned to her and replied,
I honour birch-bark,
The Island Screen. Flies stinging –
A piece of the sun.
‘What does it mean?’ Marguerite asked, intrigued.
‘I don’t know,’ the youngster replied. ‘It’s what we always say – does it have to mean anything? It’s just a game.’
Another dreyling, Elm, Larch’s son, called up from the ground, ‘When you get caught and nipped, it’s like a fly’s sting.’
‘Uz father wuz ztung by a wazp onze,’ another youngster volunteered, his accent showing that his father must be one of the original islanders. ‘Nazdy, him zaid it wuz. Him taught uz to zstay away from yellow thingz that flyz.’
No other comments were offered and Marguerite thanked them politely and as she went back along The Wall, she heard the game restart.
I honour birch-bark…
What could it mean? she wondered.
She had recently abandoned her attempts to make sense of humans’ name shapes. for Acorn was fine, and she had always used as her special mark, so must be for Marguerite; but after this she could get no further. Here was a new challenge!
I honour birch-bark
The Island Screen. Flies stinging –
A piece of the sun.
She repeated it several times to herself. The Island Screen was the name that the squirrels called the ring of trees which surrounded the open areas and the woodland, protecting them from the gales and the storms, but the Screen was mostly pine with only a few birches. Why should their bark be especially mentioned?
She climbed down The Wall, and wandered aimlessly towards the meadows to the south. Much overgrown from many years of neglect, the meadows were host to a variety of fungi in the autumn and a few grew right through from spring. Even now there were rings of small buff-coloured mushroom shapes pushing up through the rank grass. Marguerite had often wondered why this kind grew in rings and why some squirrels called other kinds, toad’s stools. Although Chestnut the Doubter wouldn’t call them that. He’d never seen a toad sitting on one.
She nibbled cautiously at the edge of a small one, it was not unpleasant though the cap was quite tough. It would probably store well for winter food, she thought. One had to be very careful with tasting, especially fungi, she knew that some could be deadly poisonous and should be avoided.
Curiosity
Drives discovery. Beware –
Daring fools may die.
Another Kernel of Truth. Her mind went back to the chant. If the chant was a Kernel, she was thinking, it should not be obscure – Clever wraps obscure. One could equally say Clumsy wraps obscure. Kernels should be clear and easy to understand!
Nearing the Zwamp, she decided to call on Ex-Kingz-Mate, Thizle, who had lived there alone since the deposed King had been killed and eaten by the pine marten. She knew many of the old island customs.
Thizle was pleased to see her and welcomed her in the island dialect, ‘Greetingz to yew, Marguerite-Friend. What newz do yew have fur uz? Uz do mizz the Pozt squirrelz.’
Marguerite could just recall the smart Royal Post Squirrels who used to sit on their posts at Dawn, High-sun and Dusk waiting for messages to be given to them. These they would relay faithfully and accurately to other squirrels all over the island. How proud they had been and how accurately they had reported; but with the abolition of the Monarchy, the Post Squirrels’ role had also disappeared.
Marguerite sat with the old squirrel in the sunshine outside her drey and told her of many things that were happening on the island. How, with so many squirrels, it was no longer possible for all of them to put their views at Council, so attendance was falling. There was talk of having to have two or even more Councils covering different parts of the island.
‘Uz can’t zay uz’z happy about that,’ the old Ex-Kingz-Mate told Marguerite. ‘Yew can get each lot quarrelling with the otherz, and Zun-knowz where yew endz up then.
‘Uz do mizz the Old Dayz – uz loved the ceremoneez. There wuz Vinding the Verzd Veather – the Monarch’z Moon Mushroomz – Greeting the Geeze – uz loved all of thoze.’
Marguerite smiled at her, then asked about the Birch-bark Kernel.
‘That’z one of old Wally’z prophezeez,’ she was told. ‘Wally’z real name wuz Walnut, and many squirrelz thought he wuz not quite right in the head. He wuz alwayz coming out with zum prophezy or other. Rubbizh, mozt of it.’
‘Do you know what the Birch-bark one means?’ Marguerite asked again.
Thizle recited it.
Hie Honourz birch-bark
The i’land’z zcreen. Fliez ztinging –
The pieze of the zun.
Marguerite noted that Thizle had said Hie instead of I or Uz, and had used The piece instead of A piece.
‘Isn’t it A piece?’ she asked.
‘It used to be The pieze but uz mate, King Willow, Zun rezd hiz bonez, changed it. He said that a fly’z zting iz hot like a pieze of the zun, zo it zhould be A pieze. It made more zenze, he said.’
Marguerite still could not make sense of it and so changed the subject. ‘Do you think this fine weather will last?’ she asked.
CHAPTER TWO
Chip took the sloe that Caterpillar handed him. It was warm from the heat generated inside the leaf pile, and it smelled over-ripe and rotten.
‘Try it, it won’t hurt yew’ Caterpillar told him.
Chip hesitated. He knew that Marguerite would not approve, and that eating the ruddled sloes was only permitted to the three ex-zervantz who had successfully pleaded to the Council that they would be ill if they did not have one regularly.
‘Are yew frit?’ asked Caterpillar.
‘Of course not,’ said Chip, looking about him before biting into the wrinkled black skin. The taste was not unpleasant and he swallowed the mouthful, feeling a warm sensation as it passed down into his stomach. He took another bite.
Caterpillar was already eating his third when Chip’s legs tangled with each other and he fell forwards on to the moist warm leaves.
Word passed round the island as quickly as the scent of gorse on a summer’s day. Chip, Marguerite’s protégé, had been found ruddled at the leaf pile and had been summoned to appear before the Council. It would have to be a down-tag for him. Every squirrel knew the rule about the ruddled sloes. Would Marguerite stand by him?
The Island Council met in the tree above the pond in Beech Valley to hear the case against Chip. Though recently few squirrels had been attending meetings, so many squirrels were present that day that some had to sit in the next tree, straining their ears to hear the proceedings above the gentle rustle of the wind in the beech-leaves.
Clover the Tagger was in charge. Chip, his head thumping, sat, tail low, on the branch near her. Marguerite was at his side.
‘Chip Who Seeks Love,’ Clover began sternly, quoting the tag Chip had earned the previous year. ‘It has been reported that you have been eating ruddled sloes, although you know this to be forbidden. Is this true?’
Chip looked at Marguerite, who nodded her head. ‘Yes,’ he replied,
his tail dropping even lower.
‘Why did you do this, when you knew it to be wrong?’ Clover asked.
Chip looked around at the mass of squirrels but could not see Caterpillar. ‘Just did,’ he replied sullenly.
Clover waited, but Chip rubbed his paws together nervously and said nothing more.
‘Does any squirrel have anything to say before I consider a new tag for Chip?’ Clover asked.
Marguerite stepped forward and quoted the Understanding Kernel:
If you could know all
Then you could understand all
Then you’d forgive all.
Clover looked at her old friend and recalled how the year before they had stood against one another for the position of’ ‘Tagger of Ourland’ and knew that Marguerite was doing her best for Chip. However if he would not explain his actions, there was no other choice but to down-tag him.
Clover waited, looking expectantly at Chip. He sat very still until she ordered him to leave the Council whilst they discussed his action. He moved to a tree out of ear-twitch.
There was little discussion. The offence was clear, the offender had admitted it, and had been given the opportunity to tell his story. As it said in the kernel: